Abstract

Two simple, sensitive and cost effective visible spectrophotometric methods (M1-M2) were developed for the estimation of almotriptan malate in bulk and dosage forms. The first method (M1) is based on the formation of radical anion with the involvement of basic nitrogen in drug (free base form) (n-donor) and chloranilic acid (DHQ) (p-acceptor). The purple colored product exhibits absorption maximum at 544 nm in methanol. The second method (M2) is based on the interaction of N-alkyl vinyl amine formed from the condensation of the free secondary amine group in the drug and acetaldehyde with p-chloranil (TQ) to give vinyl amino substituted quinone. The blue colored product exhibits an absorption maximum at 660 nm in dioxane. Beer’s law obeyed in the concentration range of 25-125 µg/mL and 20 - 60 µg/mL for method M1 and M2 respectively. Commercially available tablets were analyzed; the results obtained by the proposed methods were in good agreement with the labeled amounts. These methods offer the advantages of rapidity, simplicity, sensitivity and normal cost and can be easily applied to resource-poor settings without the need for expensive instrumentation and reagents.